Wish there were better 3rd party mobile options. On pc I can install Linux on any laptop made in the last 15 years and it will work basically flawlessly. No such equivalent exists for smart phones

LineageOS

Pixel stopped publishing device trees since a few weeks ago, it will be significantly more difficult for the devs now to continue maintaining it.

Everyone has different preferences.

My separate debit card and transport card won't discharge or just stop working as likely as a phone. It also won't be suddenly affected by bugs, nor will it get slower. Nor do I get Google also tracking every single payment as well.

The only disadvantage is compatibility. So many things, and now even some shops use contactless-only terminals, while I got contactless or magnetic payments blocked. Only chip + PIN.
But anyway, the shop that had to downgrade to contactless only due to increased fees on regular old terminal also started asking people to pay in cash instead, again, due to the fees.

I would already do it now if not for banking apps

It's not necessarily a solution, but my Garmin watch can still hold some of my cards, so I don't need the NFC payment on my phone to duplicate that functionality. Do you wear or carry any other devices that can stand-in?

FairPhone can run Postmarket OS, eOS, iodeos, calyxos and lineageos.

Some have longer support than others. Also you can buy separate parts for their phones and they are modular.

Naah. I kinda didn’t. I was simply calling out all the kids that smugly looked down on anyone using anything that wasn’t android.

Now it seems they’re very quiet. Some gifts just wrap themselves, don’t they?

Unfortunately the reviews on Trustpilot and posts on Reddit make it painfully obvious that their customer service is basically nonexistent. Combined with the typical random account-closing most fintechs are known for, this is not a reliable option.

Looking at this comparison, iCard might be an option if you desperately need a way to use NFC payments on your phone. Reviews are good, but it appears to be a prepaid system. Lots of fees to get lost in, too.

But old school might be just fine, too. I just realized my card does fit into my phone case!

I can confirm that this works with LineageOS using something like Insular, and I have tested it.

No.
I tried a smart watch for a week or so, and hated wearing it.
Hadn't worn a watch in 20 years, and it felt very strange

Fair enough. I was in that camp for a decade or more myself. I hope you find a solution!

Yes but do they support the digital national ID and SSO apps that are (only) avaliable for android and apple? Until they do, a lot of users are going to be locked into those two big OS vendors.

Yes, but i have a Nothing Phone (1). I should check the other alternatives, but afaik lineageos does not support my phone.

Go to Settings --> Apps

Find "Gemini" and tap into the app page and tap disable

If you can't find Gemini, you phone probably didn't get the Google Play System Update yet, so check the app list when you update next time. (Or you can refuse to update, but outdated android comes with security risks)

Mine is already disable for some reason. Maybe I did that a while ago and forgot about it.

I'm still praying for TempleOS mobile version.

I'm in the UK and today I got asked whether I wanted to leave this on or not - it just notified me and asked me to confirm my consent.

So I think this article's headline is slightly misleading - Google is actively informing users and asking them to confirm their consent.

ADB tools —> remove google services and other spyware apps —> oops, you bricked your phone

When I first got into Android (I miss my Nexus 6 T.T ), it felt like I could do so much more with my phone than I can now. I had so much cool automation shit that leveraged stuff like Google assistant voice commands, but now it's shit on so many levels. It goes beyond the user facing side of things; I used to use the app Tasker for a lot of the automation stuff, and over the years, it seems like the dev has been climbing an uphill battle against Google gating off functionality, and generally making things opaque and difficult for developers.

"The fact that Google has that locked down surely violates some EU laws. But I'm sure they wave away the laws because of "financial security" or some other bullshit. "

I don't know as much as I'd like to about the regulatory side of this, but I know that Google and other big tech have done a masterful job of proactively building themselves into systems such that taking action against them is difficult.

I think that's part of why the US antitrust case against Microsoft a few decades ago fizzled out into nothing — even though Microsoft was deemed to have been a monopolist, the big question was how do we remedy that in a way that isn't going to be harmful? The consensus on this amongst people who I respect is that the results of the Microsoft case was woefully insufficient and something that helped to lay the foundations of the big tech dominance that we see today.